{"id":25992,"date":"2020-02-21T18:09:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T23:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25992"},"modified":"2020-02-27T23:08:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T04:08:12","slug":"changes-to-yonge-street-traffic-proposed-in-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/changes-to-yonge-street-traffic-proposed-in-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to Yonge Street traffic proposed in study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Significant changes to Yonge Street traffic flows could\nbecome a reality in the next decade as Council considers updates to the Town\u2019s\nMaster Transportation Study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, which is up for consideration at next week\u2019s\nCouncil meeting, suggests a widened Yonge and Wellington intersection to allow\na right-hand turn lane onto Wellington from southbound Yonge Street traffic.\nAlso up for consideration is a reconfiguration of Yonge Street from Orchard\nHeights in the north to Golf Links Drive in the south, where the street would\nbe limited to one lane of traffic in each direction with leftover space\nallocated for a centre turn lane and bike lanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlong the Yonge Street Corridor, a capacity and level of\nservice analysis and progression analysis were conducted to identify any\npotential improvements to address existing operational issues,\u201d says Michael\nBat, Traffic Analyst for the Town of Aurora, in his report to Council, which\nwill receive a first sweep by local lawmakers at this week\u2019s General Committee\nmeeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reconfiguration of Yonge Street traffic is known as a\n\u201croad diet\u201d within the study. Bat says the implementation of such a system\n\u201cwill enhance safety for all road users and create a pedestrian-oriented\nenvironment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA road diet is generally referred to as a transportation\nimprovement concept that reconfigures a four-lane cross-section with two lanes\nper travel direction to [a] three-lane cross-section with single lane per\ntravel direction plus a centre two-way left turn lane,\u201d says Bat. \u201cThis\nconfiguration provides storage for left-turn movements while additional space\nat the existing curbs may be utilized for either bike lanes, additional public\nrealm\/sidewalk width, or parking lay-bys depending on the existing pavement\nwidth, and the presence of side-streets and the need for the centre two-way\nleft turn lane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar concept was floated at the Council table in the\nlast term by then-mayor Geoff Dawe, who proposed limiting Yonge Street in the\nDowntown Core to a single lane of traffic in each direction and the remaining\nspace turned over to on-street parking in an aim to benefit local business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This idea, however, was routinely voted down by the\nCouncil of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA road diet on Yonge Street through the downtown core\narea should be considered to improve operations and safety,\u201d Bat continues.\n\u201cAlthough Yonge Street from south of Orchard Heights Boulevard\/Batson Drive to\nGolf Links Drive\/Dunning Avenue is under the jurisdiction of the Town, close\ncoordination with York Region is required particularly at the critical Yonge\nand Wellington intersection and also to address the implications on the\nYRT\/VIVA service on Yonge Street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should Council vote in favour of bringing this traffic\nmodel forward, public consultation will be the next steps, with a special\nemphasis on nearby businesses and residents, as well as further work with the\nRegion of York to make it happen. Detailed designs for the model, if the\nconcept is approved, will be part of 2021 budget deliberations this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second significant change proposed is a left-hand\nturn lane onto Wellington for southbound drivers which has been a perennial\ncall from Aurora residents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a matter brought up by residents during the 2020\nBudget process and, at the time, the Town reiterated that Council previously\napproved funding for a right-hand turn lane and next steps would be acquiring\nland, currently occupied by the Bank of Montreal (BMO) to \u201cfacilitate\u201d its\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t something that has just come up in the last\nlittle while, this is something that has been going on for two decades now and\nno Town Council\u2026has ever done anything about it,\u201d said resident Mark Holmes\nduring the budget process. \u201c\u201cWe have been sitting on [this issue] and it just\nkeeps getting pushed to the backburner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCouncil has tried every which way, and I think the\nRegion has as well, to try and figure that out,\u201d replied Councillor Wendy\nGaertner. \u201cI don\u2019t really know what we can do at this point. We have looked at\nevery conceivable idea to fix this and we have not been able to come up with a\nsolution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas offered a similar point of view, but\nassured the residents there was already some movement on this file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sticking point, however, is securing land in front of\nthe Bank of Montreal, the current occupant of the intersection\u2019s northwest\ncorner, to make the turn lane a reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only thing we don\u2019t have is we haven\u2019t expropriated\nthe land yet,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cWe don\u2019t own the land as of yet, but we are\nmoving forward with the project. We will be looking at implementing a right\nturn lane there. How small or how big [the land to be expropriated] is doesn\u2019t\nmake a difference on how you go about expropriating it, it is the same\nregardless of the piece of property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the part that has been taking a bit of time at\nthis point, but we are moving forward with it. I can\u2019t speak to why previous\nCouncils before my time didn\u2019t move forward with it, what studies there were\nand why they didn\u2019t do anything, that\u2019s beyond me to speak to, but I can speak\nto the fact we are going to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Significant changes to Yonge Street traffic flows could become a reality in the next decade as Council considers updates to the Town\u2019s Master Transportation Study. The study, which is up for consideration at next week\u2019s Council meeting, suggests a widened Yonge and Wellington intersection to allow a right-hand turn lane onto Wellington from southbound Yonge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Le","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 05:31:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}